Learning Links – January 2018

Last year, I was trying to create the penultimate assignment – one that would incorporate all of the core objectives assigned to EDUC 1300: Learning Frameworks. It was fairly easy to do communication, critical thinking, and, to some extent, empirical and quantitative skills. However, social responsibility was more difficult. Not only do we have to introduce the aspect of culture and diversity, but there’s also a civic engagement part that’s more difficult to meaningfully incorporate into a learning theories class. For most of our theories, we reference this Learning Theories and Models summary. As I explored it, I discovered a learning theory called Digital Citizenship.

For the last few years, we as a population have become more concerned with how much time students spend online. Instead, we should be encouraging students to be online more to prevent a digital divide between those with access and those without. The key, though, is to ensure that students know how to use the internet and technology to “learn skills, gain information, participate in conversations around issues that matter to them, create media about topics of concern, and perhaps even communicate with an elected official about their issues or concerns.” It is in this way that we will help to create more intelligent citizens with good digital citizenship.

I have to admit that becoming aware of this term has definitely made me more aware of what I use the internet for on a daily basis. I used to spend quite a bit of time scrolling through Twitter. While I did gain knowledge, I definitely did not use it to my fullest potential. I could have participated in conversations, or created media on an important issue, or even expressed my concerns to those in charge. Instead, I simply read, absorbed, internalized, stressed, and kept it all to myself.

Out of curiosity, how many of you would categorize yourselves as good digital citizens?